Chopra rocks shaky Villa

Sunday 23 March 2008 18.53 EDT
First published on Sunday 23 March 2008 18.53 EDT

Roy Keane has always maintained that Sunderland's home form is the key to their survival, but it may well be that this is the victory that provides the springboard for another season in the Premier League.

Successive defeats - albeit by Everton and Chelsea - at the Stadium of Light had pushed them perilously close to the bottom three. Another one would have set the alarm bells ringing. Instead, Keane's side came up with a performance full of character and composure, and they were rewarded with a late winner from the substitute Michael Chopra.

The manager may have done them something of a disservice with his summing-up. 'I thought we just about edged it,' he said. His words could have been designed not to build hopes too high for a demanding run-in, yet they failed to disguise the fact that Sunderland were superior for large parts of the match and with sharper finishing they could easily have been in the driving seat by half time.

There is still a long way to go before safety can be assured. They have to go to Fulham and Bolton. Derbies against Newcastle and Middlesbrough also await. And if it does go to the wire, Arsenal are at the Stadium of Light on the final day. On the evidence of this performance, however, they look well capable of building on their first victory on the road. 'We're delighted, but it's only one game,' said Keane. 'If that is something to be carried away with, then we are all in trouble. Only time will tell where we finish.

'We have had the chance to win several times away from home, but have never quite been able to get across the finishing line. This time we managed it. We played some decent stuff and looked like a decent Premier League team. There were times when we rode our luck a bit, but if you hang in there you always have a chance.'

Villa were poor, their form since earning a point at Arsenal well short of a team with designs on Europe. They have drawn at home to Middlesbrough, lost at Portsmouth and lacked spark here until the introduction of Marlon Harewood offered a glimmer of hope. Even then chances were missed, though, notably by Harewood himself.

Martin O'Neill admitted a collective failing, but he must be particularly concerned with his goalkeeper Scott Carson, who had a nightmare at Portsmouth last week and had an indifferent time in this game, particularly with Chopra's goal, which raised questions about his decision-making.

'We were disappointing overall,' admitted the Villa manager. 'When we came off the Emirates, you would have expected these matches to have yielded more than one point. We have got ourselves into this predicament and we have to get ourselves out of it. If you have nervous performances, you have to make sure at least you win. We have not been doing this. If we don't make Europe, we won't have deserved to.

'I'm not going to single anyone out. We made mistakes collectively. We set out brightly, but lost our way a bit. There were chances, but we didn't take them.'

Despite the absence of their key man Kenwyne Jones, ruled out by a virus, Sunderland attacked with vigour from the start. Roy O'Donovan drove Kieran Richardson's pull-back into the crowd and headed Daryl Murphy's cross too high.

Villa finally exerted some pressure, with Craig Gordon touching over a looping header from John Carew, who then had a shot on the turn blocked.

Howard Webb turned down strong appeals for a penalty for hands against Nigel Reo-Coker from the influential Andy Reid's shot, and soon after Harewood was twice off target from good positions

Grant Leadbitter wasted another chance, but when Richardson released a long ball through the middle Chopra out-paced the defenders to lift the ball over Carson, who was slow coming off his line. Gordon sealed the victory by blocking Gabriel Agbonlahor's effort.

Keane last week turned down an approach by Cardiff to take Chopra - on the mark for the first time in three months - back on loan to Ninian Park. 'I've been playing him out of position, so the criticism he received was a bit unfair,' Keane said. 'He has got his head down, worked hard and has been rewarded.'

Keane also applauded the performance of the former Charlton midfielder Reid. 'He has been getting sharper, stronger and better. He will be a big player for us in the last seven matches.'

Man of the match: Andy Reid

The former Charlton midfielder was a key figure in a Sunderland performance totally at odds with their league position. He competed strongly, distributed cannily and seemed to have strong claims for a penalty close to half-time.

The fans' player ratings and verdict

Mark Rutter, Observer reader

Carson had looked like he was going to be our keeper for years, but he's making a lot of basic errors right now and I think that's effectively the end of him for us. The wind ruined the game and Villa just couldn't put a pattern of play together. Young was nullified by the defence and Gaby looks shattered, but Harewood provided a bit of a spark and probably deserves a start. This downturn all started with Curtis Davies's Achilles injury and our season seems to have died a death. Knight is a very poor replacement for Curtis - Cahill could have slotted in there. A lot of the fans are scratching their heads over that. We don't want our season to fizzle out now, and the top six is our aim - we've entered the Intertoto.

This was our first away win and probably our biggest anywhere this season. We had a last-minute winner from Collins chalked off by Steve Bennett when we played Villa at home, so we deserved this. Most of the other results went our way too, and next we've got West Ham at home, a trip to Fulham and Man City at home again. If we win those, we'll have a gap. Andy Reid looked better in centre midfield than on the left, and it was good to see Chopra get a goal after being dropped unfairly last week. When we drew at Derby a few weeks ago I thought we had to pick an away point or two up somewhere, so it's nice to get three.